Broken Bones, Unbroken Plans

Like I said earlier, I realized a bit late that I didn't share my adventures from last weekend. And since this weekend isn't going so great so far (more about that later), I figure it might be best to live in the memories for a bit.

Last weekend was, well, cold and wet. Even by Colorado standards. It was about 45 degrees and rained all weekend. Did that stop me from doing anything? Of course not! The Rockies were playing at home. Well, sorta. Playing that is. This is what it looked like when I got there Friday night:
I love these seats, btw. $12 - the same cost as a movie - and you can see everything! Unfortunately, there is a drawback to them. When there is lightning in the area, you get kicked out of them. Even if it isn't raining or storming yet. But, that was probably a good thing, because this is what it looked like ten minutes later:
when the temperature dropped insanely, the wind picked up, and the skies decided to open up and pour buckets of water down onto the field. That delayed the start of the game for about an hour and a half, but it did actually start. It never actually stopped raining, but it did lessen up to where they could play, I guess. Of course, they wouldn't let us go back to our seats in the nosebleeds, but they wouldn't let us sit in any of the lower seats, either, so I watched most of the game standing on the concourse between home and first. It wasn't too bad of a game, either. I saw three homers, a couple doubles, several base hits, and a triple. I guess the pitchers had a hard time handling the wet balls or something, cuz it was pretty much a batter's dream night.

I might have accidentally talked to an Avalanche player that night, too, but I don't know for certain. (I'm not particularly familiar with that team, although I should probably learn!) During the rain delay, when everyone and their brother was packed into the concourse, there were a group of casually-well-dressed guys near me. One looked kinda sorta familiar, but I couldn't place him. I knew he wasn't a Hawk or a Cub or any of the movie stars I might actually care to meet, and since I have no reason to know anyone in Denver, I was trying to do the "don't stare but discreetly try to figure out who he is" thing. Then they started talking about hockey and the Cup finals, which got my attention even more. But they were actually talking like they knew players, not like fans, and one of them jokingly mentioned that he "texted Hammer after the Parade to tell him that he looked like a kid on tv". In my Blackhawks-wired brain and in the context of a hockey conversation on that particular Friday, that immediately went to "Is he talking about OUR Hammer (defenseman Niklas Hjalmmerson, who, while extremely good looking, does actually look like he's 10 sometimes) and the Cup Parade??" So they definitely got my attention, but then the officials decided to announce that the game would start in ten minutes. I guess they heard the announcement but couldn't understand it (it was pretty garbled and the only reason I understood it was because I could see the JumboTron flashing the same thing) and one of them did a general "what did they just say?" to the area and I answered. He grinned at me and then he and his buddies started meandering (I assume) back to their seats. When I got home, I looked up the Avs' roster, and the guy who grinned at me sure looked a lot like Ryan O'Reilly but I can't say for sure. I'm kind of kicking myself for not being less discreet and actually finding out, but oh well. I'm going to try to hit up another game this weekend - maybe they'll be back!

Saturday was fun, too - the Circus was in town!
And they had trapeze artists, tightrope walkers, clowns, dancers, gymnasts, trampoline jumpers, tigers, and dancing elephants! It was a really fun show, although I would have gotten different seats if I'd known where I was sitting ahead of time. I was pretty much backstage, which on the one hand was kind of cool, because I was near one of the stage managers/board ops' stations, but on the other hand I got watching the crew sometimes instead of the show. Definitely worth seeing, though. Then Saturday night, myself, the girls (the two civilians in my class), and one of the guys went to Phantom Canyon Brewing Company for dinner and drinks. Very very yummy and lots of laughs!

For the life of me, I cannot remember what I did on Sunday (and I only had one beer Saturday night!), other than apparently nothing picture-worthy. Sunday, I went to the movies and saw The A-Team and The Karate Kid. Both were pretty good, although I don't remember ever watching The A-Team on tv, so I don't have anything to compare it to. I thought they were both entertaining summer movies, though. Oh, and I am looking for either a giant US or world map that I can stick pins into marking places I've been, or a blog equivalent, because I think it would be interesting.

The rest of the week was kind of boring, so I decided to spice things up by breaking my ankle on Wednesday and not getting it looked at until Friday. Okay, so they aren't sure it's broken and are going with "severely sprained" since it'd be the same treatment either way (splint, elevation, lots of ice, and painkillers - I thought if it was broken it'd be puffy and nasty looking and I'd be unable to put weight on it at all, but the doctor said that wasn't always the case) and this takes out the time of taking an x-ray and they were pretty swamped. And I wasn't even doing anything cool or fun. I literally tripped over my own two feet in my hotel room, which prompted the doctor to tell me to come up with a better story. I had decided that I was going to tell people I hurt it while using my Jedi powers to battle evil ninja pirates who were dumping more oil into the Gulf, but then my brother pointed out that ninja and pirates are mortal enemies and would never work together, so I've had to change it to getting caught in a battle between robot ninjas and zombie pirates. I have not had confirmation that this is plausible, but it sounds good, no? (ETA: My brother has apparently given up on my ability to tell a decent story. Literally, that's what he said when I asked him about the second scenario - "I give up!" Sigh. I think it still sounds better than "tripping over my own two feet"!)

Anyway, I'm supposed to take it easy and stay off of it except for work for the next two weeks and then maybe I can start walking and doing a light jog if it feels okay. I decided not to tell them that I'd done a weight workout on Thursday. (My ankle hurt, the rest of me didn't!) It's been 24 hours and I'm already going stir-crazy. It's just too nice to be indoors. I might go up to the ball game tonight - I can sit during a baseball game....

Update to Say There Will Be An Update

I was thinking about what adventures I wanted to do this weekend and realized I never posted last weekend's! It was a doozy, too, with soggy baseball games, possible meeting of hockey players (I can't confirm, but pretty sure), the circus coming to town, going out with classmates, and a pair of movies! Pics and a real post to come this afternoon, after I get out of class and my doctor's appointment.

ONE GOAL!!

Man, I don't even know where to start! I'm still so hyped up from last night, it's crazy! Oh yeah, in case you didn't know and somehow missed the loud screaming that came from the Chicago area last night...

THE CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS WON THE STANLEY CUP!!!!! Ahem. Not that I was excited about it or anything. Rumours that I may have called my parents and my brother screaming my fool head off are entirely unfounded, of course. And they would not have been screaming back at me, either, naturally. We could NEVER be so undignified in public! (Because, you know, hockey is all about dignity! ;-) ) Man, on the one hand, I would SO love to be in Chicago right now, on the other, I can't imagine how crazy tomorrow's parade is going to be!

(Random scenario today. We tend to watch ESPN at lunch, which is starting its World Cup coverage, and also catching up on baseball scores and football news - did you know the Pac 10 is soon going to be the Pac 16?! - and the guys have figured out that I can speak fairly intelligently, if not always in-depth, about most sports. One of them asked me today where I got my sports-fan-ness from. "My mom." "Really? Most girls say from their dads." "My dad likes sports, but the die-hard fandom comes from my mom." "Where'd she get it from? Her dad?" "My grandma." I thought it was amusing, anyway. Speaking of, my mom is doing a fund-raiser overnight marathon tomorrow!)

This is only intensifying (or maybe it was the creation of) my Chicago craving lately. First the Hawks, then baseball, and then the museums! I have a couple weeks off after this class gets over with - maybe I'll try to fly to Illinois for a couple days! I haven't really gotten to spend much time in the city itself for, well, probably since the last time we went to a Boston Pops Christmas concert up there. (Bird Dancing Guy! Sorry, inside joke!) And I haven't been to the museums for a couple years before that! I've been telling myself that I need to actually take a vacation for a while, and I think I've narrowed down my choices - either Chicago or Hawai'i. Chicago's more of a "day or two" type trip, while Hawai'i would be like a week thing. Luckily, I have friends in both places to stay with. Hmm....

Before I went absolutely completely hockey crazy this week (Game 5 was on Sunday night and Game 6 was on Wednesday), I did get one more weekend adventure in!



They have POLAR BEARS!!



Of course, most of the animals are smarter than humans and stayed indoors and slept through the 100-degree sunshine (I did NOT get sunburnt for once, yay spray-on sunscreen!), so most of my pics aren't that great. The ones who were cool enough to brave the heat were ones like these guys:

(first time using the video camera on the phone and trying to upload a video here so not sure how well this will work!) They were pretty fun to watch, and I got to see a feeding and training session with them, so that was pretty cool.

Not sure what I'll do this weekend - it's getting to the "ugh, it's the end of the pay period and pay day is still a few days away!" time, so maybe I'll just stay in town and go to the Olympic Training Center or something like that. The Rockies are playing at home again, too, and I know some of the guys were talking about going to a game this weekend. We'll see.

Now to bed (PT in the morning, probably kickball) and, knowing my luck, dreams of animals playing hockey! (Btw, I came in seventh place out of, well, a bunch, in the Puck This! Playoff Predictions Pool! I can't wait to pick my prize and find out who picked mine! And I HAVE been knitting, I promise! I'm almost done with the third row of my New Angle afghan! And I found a darling little LYS over by the Olympic Center!)

A Day In History

I spent Saturday surrounded by skeletons, mummies, and plasticized human remains. No, I am not in the planning stages of some weird B-flick style Halloween show. I was here:
Now, this place doesn't hold a candle to Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry (I'm suddenly struck by a strong desire to see the Fairy Castle) or even the St. Louis Science Center. It has some interesting stuff, but it isn't very big at all. I got there around 1:30p and was able to see all of the major exhibits, plus two shows, before the majority of them closed at 5:00p. It being Colorado and all, there was a big emphasis on these guys:
And they're always pretty cool. There was the obligatory ancient Egypt exhibit complete with a couple of mummies, and a health thing where you could do all these different things and then at the end it would give you a printout of your current health (the sunscreen v. UV light thing was kinda cool). The shows I saw were decent. One was an IMAX movie called "Arabia" which was a history of Arabic people during their Golden Ages and turned out to be much more interesting than I had anticipated. The other was "Cosmic Journey" in the planetarium (like you guys seriously would expect me to pass up a planetarium) which, to be honest, was good but would have been better if I had been dumber. In fact, their whole space exhibit was kind of like that. It had some neat stuff - my favorite thing was their Big Dipper constellation, which was spaced out across the ceiling not only width-wise but depth-wise, which made it look VERY different from different angles! - but it was a lot of little kids' science class stuff and very little actual space relics or history. (I might have gotten extra nerd points for being able to tell what type of rocket they were showing a launch video for, though. I got some crazy looks when a kid who was watching asked what it was and the parent said "Oh, it's a space shuttle launch" and I just couldn't let that slide. "Actually, it's a Boeing Delta II rocket launching one of the Mars rovers." I did cheat a little on the payload, it was *gasp* on the sign!) They did have a small sliver of one moon rock, though. Eh.

I ended the day with (what I assume) is their current pride and joy, and rightfully so. I didn't know it when I decided to go up this morning, but one of the BodyWorlds exhibits is currently in Denver. I'd heard a lot about it, most of it controversial, so I decided to check it out even though I really wasn't sure how I would react to it. In a nutshell, for those who don't know about it, this German guy has figured out how to preserve bodies so that the skin and outer layer of tissues are gone, and the muscles, vessels, nerves, organs and bones are all visible. It's controversial in some lines of thought because, in these cases, the bodies are human. (Personally, I think that if these people donated their bodies for this, and they did, then I have no problem with it. It is not disgusting or gory or creepy or disrespectful in any sense of the word at all.) Some of the bodies are posed doing regular human things (walking, lifting, playing hockey - seriously!) so that you can see how things work together to give us motion. Others are dissected, sometimes cross-sectioned, into one of the best anatomy lessons I have ever had in my life. This is tempered with a focus on love and happiness and peace and how those things actually physiologically affect us and make us work better. (Did you know that optimists actually do live longer than pessimists? I didn't.) It is most definitely NOT an art exhibit, although it does show off the power and resilience of the human body like I have never seen, and I can't honestly say I enjoyed it or even liked it, but I can say that I learned from it and it definitely made me think. I might not go out of my way to see it again, but I would recommend it to someone who hasn't seen it before. So all in all, it was a good day. To the zoo tomorrow!!

Because What's More American Than Baseball?

I still don't like Colorado all that much, but I do have to give Denver its props. It's just over an hour away, so I can sleep in, wake up, go to places like this:



and see things like this:



and still be home around 6:30p!

Coors Field is really nice, too. Very pretty, and the fans were a lot of fun. They do "God Bless America" and "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" for the seventh inning stretch (I don't know if that's an everyday thing or just Memorial Day, though). Lots of recognizing military between half-innings (I got a free ticket thanks to being military!) and they do know how to do a baseball game. I was in the first row of the upper deck, on the first base side, so I could see pretty much everything that was happening on the field. I could even tell (usually) when pitches were strikes or balls. (I was a bit worried that I would fall over the railing - it's only about knee high - and so decided to play it safe and not try to go for any foul balls that came my way. Only one did and it was too high for me anyway.) I sat in front of a dad who was there with his son and daughter, who were clearly not a huge baseball family but were having a good time anyway. Definitely the kids' first time at a major league game, and I think it might have been the dad's, too. They were very fun to listen to, although I did get caught smirking when the kids mentioned “I think hockey rinks get louder than this. Have you heard about how loud Chicago gets when they score a goal?!” I mean, really, how could you not be proud of overhearing THAT? Even schoolkids in Denver know about the Madhouse on Madison! (There were also more than a few Avalanche hats in the crowd.)

Anyway, definitely going to head back to Coors Field again while I'm here. They lost to the Dodgers, who I probably should have been cheering for since they'd technically be my "home" team now, but I've never liked the Dodgers and the Rockies' uniforms are much nicer (purple, white, and black!). I can cheer for Colorado as long as they aren't playing the Cubs!

Back to BW's tomorrow night for Game 2! Go Blackhawks!!

Stanley Cup Warm-Ups

Killing time before going out to catch the game somewhere alcoholic (and actually getting a chance to watch my Cubs play for once! Remember, I'm the girl who always swore she'd marry a Cub someday. Now I'm conflicted because I kinda want to marry a Blackhawk, too! Can I have both?). Anyway, because “every day is a great day for hockey” (Mario Lemeiux), here’s some classic hockey humor:

By the age of 18, the average American has witnessed 200,000 acts of violence on television, most of them occurring during Game 1 of the NHL playoff series. ~Steve Rushin

A puck is a hard rubber disc that hockey players strike when they can’t hit one another. ~Jimmy Cannon

How would you like a job where, every time you make a mistake, a big red light goes on and 18,000 people boo? ~Jacques Plante

Hockey players wear numbers because you can’t always identify the body with dental records. ~Author Unknown (my current favorite!)

All hockey players are bilingual. They know English and profanity. ~Gordie Howe

And, of course:

I went to a fight the other night and a hockey game broke out. ~Rodney Dangerfield

A few other gems I've found: Intent To Blow gives the Blackhawks Pronger-zombie killing tips and View From My Seats tells you who your teams are cheering for and why. (Pretty funny if you know hockey teams and a little history, a little bit of language.)

GO CUBS!!

GO BLACKHAWKS!!!!

Memorial Day

Here's a toast to the host
Of those who loved the vastness of the sky,
To a friend we send a message of his brother men who fly.
We drink to those who gave their all of old,
Then down we roar to score the rainbow's pot of gold.
A toast to the host of men we boast, the U.S. Air Force!
-The Air Force Song, third verse

The Airman's Creed
I am an American Airman.
I am a warrior.
I have answered my nation's call.

I am an American Airman.
My mission is to fly, fight and win.
I am faithful to a proud heritage,
A tradition of honor,
And a legacy of valor.

I am an American Airman.
Guardian of freedom and justice.
My nation's sword and shield.
Its sentry and avenger.
I defend my country with my life.

I am an American Airman.
Wingman.
Leader.
Warrior.
I will never leave an Airman behind.
I will never falter,
AND I WILL NOT FAIL!

Settling In

So Teddie still isn't particularly fond of the fact that he can hear *gasp* Other People outside in the hallway on occasion, and there is that (I assume) very scary cleaning lady (who probably uses a *double gasp* vaccuum cleaner!) who comes in once a day to tidy things up. I have personally never met her, but as she cleans the room and leaves friendly notes afterwards and nothing's been stolen, I'm assuming she's probably okay. Doesn't change the fact that he hides under the bed for at least an hour after I get "home" every day. Silly kitty.

Class is okay. They aren't as fun as my last class - we had a lot of, ah, outgoing personalities in that class, though luckily without the major drama types - but we do have over two months to figure things out, I guess. The topics so far have been review, although we started a new block today that is new information, at least to me. I might drown soon in alphabet soup, though. And some of the stuff we can only study/do onsite, so that makes it more of a challenge. I'm the lowest rank, but it hasn't been too bad. There's a mix of ranks and experience, so I figure as long as I'm respectful and do my best in the class, things will be okay. (The instructors let me knit in class during breaks and "study times"! I might get my afghan done after all!) PT also (so far) hasn't been as bad as I had feared. We did self PT at the gym yesterday, and I was able to do a 5K run on the treadmill pretty comfortably. (Blackhawks TV episodes 1 & 2 may have also helped - one of the guys in class asked me today what I had been giggling at while I was running yesterday! They're still funny, even though I've seen them several times! Note, though - a 5K requires just under two episodes, but if you run the distance, do a cool down, and then stretch, you should be able to finish the second one.)

I still haven't warmed up much to Colorado, though, nor it to me. It's very flat, very Midwest-ish three-quarters of the view and then there's a big old mountain (Pike's Peak, I guess) to the west. It's pretty, I guess, but not as cool to me as driving down the 101. Weird. I'm going to try to make better friends with it this weekend, though. We do get a three day weekend like most of the country, and Denver is only a little over an hour away. I'm thinking about spending Sunday or Monday up there, maybe hitting Denver Zoo (they have a polar bear!) and a Rockies/Dodgers game (kinda hometown team, I guess). I'm also going to try to hit up a sports bar for the games on Saturday and Monday. I know they'll be on NBC, which I do get here in the room, but it would be kind of nice to share the Finals with other hockey fans, even if they are strangers.

Starting to rain here (I guess Denver got a heck of a storm today), and I need some sleep, so I'm gonna crash. Have a good Thursday!

Colorado Girl

Is not as fun as being a California Girl. It IS pretty here, don't get me wrong, and it's warmer here, surprisingly, but it's really weird to not have an ocean to balance out the mountains. And I've had a headache since I started getting into the mountains in Utah last night, no matter how much water I drink. At least the people I've run into today have been much more pleasant and helpful than yesterday, so I don't have quite as bad of a taste in my mouth as I did last night. I even had two guys comment on my Blackhawks t-shirt today - one guy asked if they were really my team or if I just liked it because it sparkled (it has crystals embedded in it) and then proceeded to remind me that the Avalanche play less than an hour away in Denver (which, sadly, does me no good this time of year, seeing as my BLACKHAWKS are now the only Western team still playing!) and the other guy wanted to know how the game went today, which I, of course, was more than happy to tell him.

The room I'm staying in is pretty nice - it has a decent sized living/sleeping space, king-sized bed, kitchenette (with a toaster, which reminds me that I want to get some toaster strudels and Eggos tomorrow), dishes, and a decent internet connection. Most of my favorite TV channels, too, except Versus, so it's probably a good thing that the next games I want to watch are the Finals (YEAH HAWKS!!!) and are supposed to be only on NBC. We'll see. I'm also not looking forward to doing PT up here in the mountain, but I am telling myself that it will help me out enormously when I get back to California. I also noticed an MMA/Fitness center on the main drag here, so I might have to check that out. Teddie has not given his approval to the room, but I notice that he has used his litter box and eaten some food, so that's a good sign.

Class starts tomorrow, and it's a Monday, so blues day. Still gotta get the directions to the base and make sure my regular blues are presentable. Wish me luck!

One down...

...Two more to go. I’m done with the dorms, thank goodness! It ended up being not as hellish as it started out – once you can start going off-base you start feeling less confined. It really would not have been so bad at all if the phase program had been taken away completely. Like I think I said earlier, I understand why the phase program exists, and probably everyone thinks they deserve to live outside the rules, but the lessons that the phases are supposed to teach have already been learned by people who have already lived on their own for a while. Oh well. In the end, I was able to have as much alone time as I wanted, but I could also have people around whenever I wanted. And the people I ended up having to live with are good people. I ended up as “big sis”, “Blackhawk”, and, of course, “Trouble.” So I really can’t complain too much, but I am glad it’s over and I can live at home, at least for a week. Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you guys – I AM getting sent to Colorado, now. Two and a half months. Yay. But at least I can take the cat with me this time! And I am going to be living in a hotel and not on base.

I have been able to be home frequently, but I haven’t been online much. Mostly because I met a really awesome guy who is cute, smart, talented, ambitious, caring, funny, into family and computers and sports and theater, and not only has heard of, but likes and can quote “McLintock.” We were on opposite schedules, I was on days and he was on swings, so we were usually limited to lunch and dinner during the week and then hung out on weekends. We made the weekends count, though. We went to two shows at PCPA (his idea! And go see “Curtains” this summer – it is VERY funny and well worth it!), saw two movies, played and volunteered at the Santa Barbara County Fair, volunteered at the Special Olympics, went to the Brewery, cooked two dinners at my apartment, and laughed and talked a lot. So we stayed pretty busy despite having limited time together. Of course, I’m leaving for Colorado this coming weekend and he’s getting shipped to Louisiana the week after that to his permanent duty station. How come all the good guys have to leave? ;-)

Speaking of the Special Olympics, if you ever get a chance to help out with one of their events, do it. It can be hard, but it is worth it. I had thought that we would be helping out with setting up and events and booths and stuff, but no. We each got paired up with one of the athletes and spent the day with them, making sure they got to their events on time and cheering them on. My athlete had Down’s Syndrome, and was bilingual! Trying to talk was quite the challenge sometimes! It turned out to be a lot of fun and a very rewarding experience!

Anyway, I haven't been feeling very good today and I have to go back to work (ish) tomorrow, so now that the Blackhawks have won (Go Hawks!!) I think I'm going to take a nap!

A Day In The Life

Drat, the Blackhawks decided to follow the trend and get upset on the first game of the playoff series. C'mon guys! You're so much better than that! Sunday, baby! I am hoping to get some knitting time in tomorrow (I can't knit during Blackhawks games - I get too worked up to even sit still most of the time - but I'm not as emotionally invested in any of the games tomorrow and have to rest up for a midnight CQ shift anyway, so that should be good knitting time. Assuming I can remember what to do with sticks and string...)


I wish I had had a better idea of what to expect when I was getting ready for my tech school. Granted, the Vandenberg schoolhouse is generally much much more easygoing than some of the bigger training bases (Sheppard and Keesler come to mind - we are MUCH smaller), so this is pretty base-specific but would still be good info for those going into space or missiles. So maybe if there's someone out there like me who got their tech school and then tried to find information on what it will be like, this might help.

A typical day here looks like this:

0400-0450
People who want first breakfast start waking up and getting ready for the day. If you want a hot non-processed breakfast and are in class, you go to first breakfast. Only Phase I detail airmen have the option of going to second breakfast, because the rest of us are in class.

0515-0530
People who don't go to first breakfast start waking up and getting ready for the day. People who do go to first breakfast load up into the van and head out.

0545
Everyone starts heading downstairs/back from the dining hall

0600
Morning formation in the dayroom. The ropes take accountability, the morning MTL makes any necessary announcements.

0615-0630
People in classes start forming up and marching over to the schoolhouse, which is about a quarter mile (if that) from the dorm in an almost straight line. No big deal.

0630-1100(ish)
Morning classes. March back to the dorm when your instructors release you. (Ours has never kept us past 1045 but missiles often stay until 1115)

1120-1130
Bus picks us up at the dorms to take us to the dining hall for lunch. Phase I must go to lunch, the other two phases don't have to (we have mini-fridges and can keep food in our rooms - lots of people do breakfast this way so they can sleep in later). Often used as naptime for those who don't have to go to the dining hall.

1215
Bus picks us up at the dining hall and brings us back to the dorms.

1230
Classes form back up and march back over to the schoolhouse.

1245-1430(ish)
Afternoon classes. March back to the dorm when released. The MTLs will usually make us stay down in the dayroom and "study".

1500
MTLs release us to go to our rooms to get ready for PT (M/T/Th) or Airmen's Time (W) or Final Formation (F). Usually more naptime for those who are good with the 20-minute power naps.

1545
We start forming up for PT/AT/FF

1600-1700
PT/AT/FF (AT and FF very rarely go past 1530, PT will usually go the entire hour). For us, Mondays are usually circuit/strength days, Tuesdays are runs (3-5 miles) and Thursdays (depending on the MTL's mood) are "fun" days - ultimate football/frisbee, soccer, dodgeball, etc.

After that, we're released for the day and the MTLs escape (or turn into vampires or whatever it is they do when they aren't at the dorm - btw, MTLs are military training leaders and are basically the sergeants in charge of dorm life. They do our room inspections, open ranks, PT, any drill stuff we do, and take care of discipline problems in the "house". They aren't academic teachers. "Ropes" are students who have been designated as leaders within the dorm - different colors have different levels of authority/responsibility). You can get dinner at the dining hall (if you're a Phase I you have to, the other phases can eat elsewhere if they want, but hey, free food, right?), shower, change into civvies, study, clean/do laundry, run errands (on and off base), go to the bowling alley or ministry center, use your personal electronic devices (if you can get a decent connection, which is hard - go to the bowling alley if you're Phase II or above and can't get off-base =P ) During the week, we all have to be back in our rooms by 2200. The weekends are much more lax - you pretty much make your own schedule, as long as you're following your phase rules, make your bed checks Friday and Saturday nights (2200 for Phase I, 2400 for Phase II and yes, they will wake you up to make sure you're in your room), and are accounted for at the GI Party at 2000 on Sunday. Our GI parties aren't bad - just a few end of weekend announcements and a couple rooms get assigned to do stuff like vaccuum the carpet in the hallways or clean the CQ latrines that barely anyone uses. No big deal.

I don't know anything about the missile classes, but the space instructors that I've met so far have all been great. Knowledgeable, and very very approachable. My class spends about 90% of the time laughing and we would hang out all the time if we were allowed to. The other classes tell me theirs are similar. And the academic instructors can also help with situations going on in the dorms, too, and can be counted on to talk to the MTLs if they feel there is a problem that is affecting an NPSer in the classroom. I've personally seen my instructor do that a few times, and if he can't deal with it, he'll get someone up the food chain who can, which is heartening to see. I very much prefer being in class to being in the dorms, because I actually get treated like I have a head on my shoulders there. Dorm life definitely delves down to the lowest common denominator very quickly, and I am very much NOT 18 years old. And having a car and driving privileges will automatically make you everyone's new best friend, which can be both fun and irritating.

But anyway, if anyone is looking on the 'Net for information about tech school at VAFB, I hope you find this and it helps!

Easing Up (A Little)

Survived two weeks so far. Phasing up on Monday, which means I can leave the dorm in civilian clothes, drive, personalize my room, and LEAVE BASE in my blues (but I can change if I go to the dojahng, as long as I wear the blues leaving and coming back). I still have to be back and in my room by 2200 during the week and 0000 on the weekends, but I can actually go see Sir and Ma'am and Mrs. S (all of whom have been texting me telling me to get my ass back to class) and my knitting and TEDDIE! And I can watch the playoffs on a REAL tv without having to fight for it. And get a real internet connection.

Life isn't completely terrible, though. I have a couple of nicknames here now, which I'm told is a good sign. The ones I've heard have been Blackhawks (by the resident Wings fans, due to wearing my jersey for Sunday games) and Trouble, which is, of course, highly original and I've never heard before =P Class has been pretty cool. It's a good group of people, and we have a lot of fun. (We went bowling on Friday afternoon. Seriously.) I only missed one question on our first block test (I had a brainfart and couldn't remember if "I" in the phonetic alphabet was India or Indigo and of course guessed wrong), and I think I did pretty decently on the PT eval, too. My run time wasn't as good as I wanted it, but it was definitely passable AND we were running directly into the wind AND we ran the outside of the track when it turns out that the 1.5 miles is actually measured from the INSIDE of the track, so we actually ran farther anyway. So I'm not going to get too worked up about it. And we're in our orbital mechanics block right now, which is kind of my love. (Yes, I'm a space geek, I think that's been established.) There's also a launch coming up soon, so that should be cool.

Four more weeks until total freedom. Yay!

So class actually started today and it will definitely make life more bearable. There are about ten of us, one of them is one of my flightmates from the 216th (prior service), one is a dormmate, and the rest are all prior service. I'm not the lowest or the highest rank, the instructor is pretty cool (if a bit scatterbrained, but it's fun) and the material doesn't seem too bad so far. Nothing new, anyway.

And we played ultimate frisbee for PT today (apparently Mondays are circuit, Tuesdays are distance runs, and Thursdays are "fun" as long as we keep up our PT scores). Got an eval on Monday, though. We'll see how that goes. Should be fine - I'm not worried about passing, just about bragging rights, quite honestly.

Now just gotta make it through the next about nine days and I'll at least be able to drive and leave base in the evenings (even if I do have to come back at night to sleep). Finding myself slipping back into the BMT mentality of living meal to meal and taking it one day at a time. I hate it, but, like Basic, it's not hell. It's just not pleasant either and if I could do it any other way, I would.

Dorm Life

Is actually worse than it was the first time around. I hate it already - too much drama, not enough hockey (it doesn't help that the hockey I do get is in time to watch them LOSE. AGAIN.).

I'm the oldest here by approximately a decade. Okay, not quite, but the next youngest person is three years younger than me. This, plus the fact that there aren't really very many of us but we're all in different stages ranging from people who have been here for months to people who came in today (like me), makes it irritating. And the fact that I got pulled aside today to hear that I'm a "unique case" that the MTLs will be keeping an eye on. Not only am I one of, if not the, highest ranking student right now by virtue of being an A1C AND having graduated Basic four months before most of these guys, but I also have had four months "off" ("OFF?!" Do they know ANYTHING about my unit??), and I'm local. So apparently this makes me very interesting to the MTLs. On the one hand, this could work in my favor. On the other, it could work very much against me. And I'm new, which makes me very interesting to the other students, particularly the girls (I'm the only female who came in this week). A bunch of 18-19 year olds who think they feel superior is really irritating. I don't mind listening and getting tips and learning the ropes, but it's pretty annoying. My roommate doesn't seem too bad so far, though. And I guess I am very lucky because I actually get to start class really soon, which means I can get the hell out of here soon. The dorms are actually pretty nice, don't get me wrong. It's the people in them that drive me nuts. I cannot get through these phases fast enough!

I didn't like living with other girls (except maybe Marcy, we got along pretty well) in college, I didn't like it at Basic, and I REALLY HATE it right now when I have a perfectly good (solo) apartment with a GOOD internet connection AND tv AND a kitty less than 20 miles away. Blargh. (Oh yeah, did i mention the 5 mile run we did for PT today? That would count as one of the better parts of the day, even though my feet hurt like crazy. Yeah, it's been THAT good.)

Now I get to go make my room inspection ready and hopefully go to bed early. Don't want to deal with this day any more.

Take Me Out To The Ball Hockey Game!

Dear Chicago Blackhawks,

Thank you for entertaining me with an insanely fun game the other night in Los Angeles. We must do it again sometime soon! I think it was a mutually beneficial arrangement and needs to continue - I get to have fun at the games and in return, I would graciously accept the duties of being your good-luck charm/cheerleader/plainclothes coach. We can try it out for a few games to see how it works, but I have full confidence in our respective abilities. I'm sure it would be a very minor expense for you guys, and have great return for everybody. Please let me know what you think of this offer.

Sincerely,
kt

Seriously, though...That. Was. Awesome! You know things are going to go well when the very first song to start off your drive is "Chelsea Dagger" by The Fratellis.
Which is not only a very fun, energetic song, but is also the 'Hawks goal song. So a very good omen. Of course, I get on the road late, as always, and hit traffic as early as Santa Barbara. And, of course, I got somewhat lost in Downtown LA, but then I thought maybe these guys might know the way and decided to follow them. Good call, as it turned out, so thanks, anonymous Kings fans!

So despite leaving four and a half hours before the 7:30p game, I only got here (okay, so that's actually the Nokia Center, which is across from the Staples Center, but it was a cool shot, okay?) a few minutes after 7:00p and then had to wait for Jen to get there and of course there was confusion trying to find each other, so we barely got to our seats in time for the National Anthem (they had a female Air Force lieutenant colonel there to represent the military that night, woo!), and I didn't get to see warmups at all, which I hear are the best time for pictures. I shall have to be more expedient next time.

But anyway, our seats. Um, how shall I put this? They ROCKED! We were four rows up from the ice, right behind the Kings' penalty box (Jen's pic, all she had to do was lean forward a little during one of the many times Ivanans was in there during the game. This time he had company!) and just oh so slightly kitty-corner from the Blackhawks' bench I'd SWEAR Jonathan Toews looked right at me and smiled at one point, but I'm sure it was my imagination. Sharpie, however, did come over at the end of the first intermission and decided to use the area right in front of us for stretching. The man is, to hazard a guess, approximately a billion times hotter in real life, but that might be a conservative under-estimate. And he has the most amazingly impish smile, but unfortunately, they move too bloody fast on the ice to get good pics of their faces! The only times I could catch any of them standing still, they had their backs to me. Still, it's not every day that there is an Olympic gold medalist less than ten feet away from you! (Even if his usual partner in crime, Seabrook, was out for the game because of that ugly hit he took Wednesday night. Glad to see an 8-game suspension come out of that! Seabs apparently skated in practice today, though, which is heartening, to say the least!)

Laddieboy finally decided to be gracious and pose for me, though, which I thought was very sweet of himOh, and we were absolutely surrounded by Blackhawks fans, too which made it even more fun! Picture deliberately blurry because I couldn't get it to focus without the flash, but with the flash, I lost the colors, and I thought the colors were more important for this one! (In addition to the goal song omen, the very first jersey I see near the Staples Center? A bright red Blackhawks one, of course! Another good omen! I was driving and didn't get a pic of him, though!)

Kings' fans are odd birds, though. I mean, they were friendly enough, no nastiness or anything, but they seemed pretty quiet. Maybe all games are really like this and just seem louder on tv. I dunno. The lack of a play by play also made it seem really quiet, but it was totally made up for by the fact that we were seeing it live in front of us. The other thing that really surprised me was the total lack of response when the opposing team (us) scored. I mean, I wasn't expecting them to play Chelsea Dagger, of course, but there was absolutely NOTHING. Not a goal siren, not an announcement, not even a flashing red light. I mean, I get making a big deal out of a home team's goal, but is it normal to have absolutely no recognition for the away team?? I thought that was weird. The first goal was down at the farther end from us, and the only reason we knew it had happened was because we saw the guys start piling on Brouwer and thumping him on the back. It took forever to change the scoreboard, too, so a lot of us were doing the "did we really score??" looks at each other before they finally lined up for the puck drop at center ice. The other two goals we scored were down at the nearer end to us, and we saw them quite clearly. Chicago fans have never been accused of being quiet! Oh, and I'd always thought it was kind of silly for there to be so many shots of players on the bench watching the JumboTron during games, but now I get it. Sometimes it was a little hard to see what was going on at the farther ends away from you, and it was easier to keep an eye on things via the screen. And yes, Kane really does do that with his mouthguard. Constantly, even on the ice. He's gonna get his teeth knocked out one of these days, and that would be bad =(

It was Jen's first hockey game ever, and my first pro hockey game (I have vague memories of being at a Rivermen's game in Peoria when I was little), so we had fun doing the whole starstruck thing a lot. A better pic of me: A better pic of Jen:There were two guys maybe a couple years younger than me (Jen is a couple years older) next to me, and two little boys with their dads, who were obviously pals, in front of us. All in Blackhawks jerseys, of course. They were SO much fun to watch watching the game! And, of course, we all had to work together to teach them the proper (kid-friendly) cheers, since the Kings fans weren't doing them right. (It's "Lets Go Hawks!", hel-LO!) Jen is not really an avid hockey fan, she usually only watches it during the Olympics, but she was pretty fun to hang out with. We had fun teaching her the game, and, of course, we all really liked the fight!

I do have to give the Kings goalie, Quick, props. They had something like 35 shots on goal and he stopped all but three. And got his helmet knocked off by one! (That's my boy, Sharpie!) But, all good things must come to an end, and after 60 minutes of playing, the powers that be decided three goals was enough for one game and picking on the Kings even more would be unsportsmanlike, so everyone packed up and went home, and I finally got a decent shot of the Captain and Alternate Captain together (if only they were turned around!)
I really can't explain how much fun it was to be there. If I lived anywhere near Chicago, I'd spring for season tickets, or at least one of those six- or ten-packs. (I assume they have those in Chicago. The teams here have them, anyway.) Don't get me wrong, there are advantages to watching it on tv - hearing the plays explained, actually seeing the whole rink (which is not as big irl as it looks on tv!), being in your own home - but man, is it cool to feel the thuds as the players hit the boards and hear the crack of the puck as it gets passed from stick to stick! You really appreciate the speed of the game and the skill it takes a lot more when you're up close!

And today wasn't too bad either! (I mean, aside from the fact that both the Sharks and the Red Wings lost, which is always cause for a good day.) I spent the night in downtown LA at the Ritz Milner, which is just down the street from the Staples Center. (Not the Ritz Carlton big fancy oolala hotel, which is also near the Center, but the Ritz Milner, which is much smaller and cheaper, but still clean and safe, which is all I really care about in a hotel room when it comes right down to it.) While I could only live in one if I absolutely had to, I do like the space efficiency and bustle of big cities' downtown areas. Having a grocery store as the first floor of a building, or a restaurant on a middle floor, instead of in their own individual buildings, is a source of amusement for me. And just a few blocks away you get into the hispanic markets, which are just colorful and loud and crowded and vibrant.

So I played tourist for a bit, and then headed over to my old stomping grounds and had lunch with John and Eduardo, which was a blast as always. We didn't realize until I was halfway home (John and I often talk on the phone when I'm driving out of LA, usually because I get stuck in traffic) that today exactly is our fifth anniversary. We've been harassing each other officially doing shows together for five years now. I say I deserve a medal, or at least a pin. He says I don't get anything until ten years. We'll see who wins that battle ;-) Anyway, there may be a small, private show in Santa Barbara at the end of May, so cross your fingers that I'll be around for it!

And I think I've officially had more drinks than hours of sleep now, so I'm going to crash and start my weekend tomorrow. And dream of hot Blackhawks and Stanley Cups and magic =)

Beware the Ides of March

(Keep in mind this is also after a weekend where my Blackhawks had not one but TWO games IN THE BAG and then lost, AND one of my favorite players got injured so badly he'll be out for the rest of the season AND I found out that I'm not supposed to "aggravate" my ankle for pretty much until I go to tech school, unless I want to be killed by certain people who worked hard to get me into said tech school, which means no martial arts, so I wasn't really on a good streak anyway.)

6:30a: Instead of being woken up by my favorite songs, as usual, I wake up to a very faint beeping noise. My phone apparently hadn't gotten fully plugged into the clock and wasn't triggered by the alarm. The clock compensates by making a pathetic buzzing. Not a fun wake-up call.

7:30a: Feeling pretty good for being ready not just on time, but early, despite the alarm clock and having to wear blues today. Step outside to decide if I want my jacket or not, and the door promptly blows shut behind me, locking me out. Luckily, the maintenance guy lives across from me.

7:40a: Leave for work, feeling lucky that I did not hit the sides of the garage door while backing out (I have a fear of that, our garages are narrow!) on a day when luck is clearly not on my side. But now I'm ready, I have my stuff, I'm on the road to work on time despite Fate so far.

8:00a: Stop at the last stoplight before the road turns into the highway and decide to take a sip of my iced coffee to celebrate still being on time. Just as I think "hey, that's not the lid they usually put on these cups," said lid and said cup decide to separate in my hands, and iced coffee literally explodes all over my car. It's all over my uniform, on my face. It's dripping from my hair, and the steering wheel, and the dashboard, and has completely FLOODED the center console, which of course houses my phone, phone jack/radio, and Bluetooth headset when I'm driving. I manage to pull over after the light changes, rescue the phone from its coffee bath, manage to send a text to my captain, and the thing promptly dies.

8:10a: Manage to get turned around to head home to change, swearing vehemently over the apparently dead phone, the stained uniform, and the cold iced coffee puddle I'm now sitting in. Am stopped at an intersection, my light turns green, I start into the intersection, and manage to slam on the brakes in time to avoid getting t-boned by some friggin idiot who decided the red light didn't apply to him. Now I'm cold, wet, stained, phoneless, pissed AND shaken. And I haven't even made it to work yet!

8:30a: Finally make it home and get the car cleaned out enough to at least be not completely gross. Park sideways between the garages so I can easily get to the Dumpster with the sopping wet paper towels. Dry the electronics off as best as I can, and turn them off. (Phone does decide to work properly upon rebooting, which I am extremely thankful for.) Decide to leave my car parked where it is while I run upstairs to change into any clean blues I have available. I have my long sleeve shirt (which requires the tie tab, which must be straight) and my skirt (which I don't mind wearing usually but requires hose rather than socks). Am halfway through changing when the doorbell rings. Decide to ignore the doorbell, as I'm still in the process of buttoning up my shirt, and hear the complex manager start yelling and banging on the door asking if I was okay. Realize I'm going to have to deal with her unless I want the entire building's attention and jerk the rest of my uniform on. Apparently she saw my car parked at the odd angle and immediately assumed something must be terribly wrong. Assure her things are (relatively speaking) fine and head out the door again, remembering to grab an old towel to sit on in the car.

8:50a: Get another coffee from McD's, adamantly telling the lady that they'd better put the right lid on it this time. It was a different lady, so she probably thinks I'm insane.

9:30a: Finally make it to work, and realize after I've checked in with the captain that my belt is not even close to being straight with the rest of my uniform. Get my orders for tech school. Try to find out what I'm supposed to bring and where/who I'm supposed to report to when. No one knows, and there's no information online. Training NCO promises to look into it.

10:30a: Go to the shared printer to get a course outline I'm working on and notice the guy who's taking over the student flight has printed out some information for them about Basic. Some of it is no longer current. Feel the need to let him know this and end up spending the next hour and a half arguing with him about how BMT actually is versus how he thinks it should be.

12:00n: Look down at my legs during the above conversation and realize there's not just a run, but a large hole in my nylons. Right on the back of the knee, very visible. Make a run to the BX to get new hose.They don't have the size and color I really want, so I have to settle for a darker color.

1:00p: Back to work and have absolutely no concentration on the job at hand. Decide to continue research, thinking Training NCO will come get me when she's ready to go talk to the people she wanted to go talk to with me. Resurface four hours later, having not found anything I was originally looking for but lots of fascinating things that had absolutely relevance whatsoever. Consider the day absolutely wasted at work, and feel guilty that I actually got paid for it.

4:30p: Get halfway home before remembering that I'd wanted to stop at the commissary for groceries so I wouldn't have to stop in town in uniform. Decide I have stuff for spaghetti at home and continue on.

5:00p: Get home. No spaghetti noodles. There are lasagna noodles, though. Get the bright idea to put them in one of my disposable mini bread pans layered with some of my sauce and throw it in to the oven even though I don't have any cheese for a real lasagna. Feel pleased with my brilliant idea and get out a bottle of cheap white zinfindel. Press the corkscrew against the cork, which immediately pops DOWN into the bottle, splashing wine everywhere. Come very close to throwing things around the room in frustration.

5:15p: Open box of lasagna noodles to start layering the whateverI'mmaking while the oven preheats. Pull one out, and am greeting by several little black faces looking at me. There are BUGS in my unopened box of lasagna noodles. (Granted, I have no idea how long I've had the box, it was in the very back of the pantry.) EW. No pasta tonight. Settle for frozen pizza again. I do love pizza, but I'd just had it the night before.

7:00p: Tune in the hockey channels and realize Detroit is getting beat. Watch that game for a few minutes before realizing that with the way my luck has been going, if I keep watching and cheering for the Flames, literal flames will probably start raining down on the rink, mass hysteria will break out, and Detroit will end up winning. (Sure enough, they did, too. Without the carnage and mass hysteria, though. Unless you count being a Red Wings fan as a hysteria.) Instead, hook up the laptop to the tv (which was actually successful for some reason) and continue getting caught up on Season Two of Castle, which I am very behind on. Have brief text convo with my brother, who I am trying to convince to come out to visit. Am unsuccessful again.

10:00p: Come online to check scores and email and start this post. Curse seems to be fading - one of my magic crew is able to go with me to the game on Thursday. The Sharks apparently lost to the Ducks (who saw THAT coming?!) last night, which cuts their playoff lead over us to only two points. That's the best news I've had all day. And the way my day has gone, I'm going to take it and end on a good note. Tomorrow can't be worse, right??

Puckbunny-ness

I'm so excited! I got tickets to the Blackhawks/Kings game down in LA March 18th!! And not just any tickets, but pretty good ones! (Center ice, row 4, glass seating!) And I found a Patrick Sharp third jersey for a steal on eBay, so I'll even have something appropriate to wear! Now, just to find someone to go with me! ;-) My goal, of course, is to run away with Sharpie after the game, but seeing as that isn't likely to happen (and I'd have to go through the whole 'dealing with foreign nationals' routine, since he's Canadian - a definite downside to having my job), I'll just have to try to take lots of pictures. I think the magic crew is gonna try to get together that weekend while I'm in town, too, so that should be enough consolation for only getting to make smoochie faces through the glass.
We were awesomely represented at the Olympics, though, and that game was friggin' amazing! And our boys have handled it all with a lot of class - a lot of respect for everyone they played, and even better, a lot of love for "coming back home and winning things together now!" What more can you ask for in a sports team??

ETA: I have had Saving Abel's "New Tattoo" stuck in my head for two days now. It's driving me nuts!

I've got a brand/new tattoo
The colors in it remind me of you
I've got a brand/new tattoo
The colors in it remind me of you
Blue is for the bruise that you left on my heart
Red is for the color we're about to paint this town -
Oooo, I got a new tattoo!

Closing Ceremonies

In my own personal Olympic tradition, I did not finish either of my events on time. I can live, however.

That hockey game will go down in history. Wow. Go Blackhawks. That's all I can really say. No one deserved to lose that game. Team USA, you did us proud. Team Canada, see you again in four years ;-)

Thank you Vancouver and all of Canada for a beautiful, exciting, thrilling, and outstanding two weeks. Tears were shed, smiles were shared, history was made. In other words - it was quintessential Olympics.

"I declare the Games of the 21st Olympiad closed and, in accordance with tradition, I call upon the youth of the world to assemble four years from now at Sochi to celebrate with us there the Games of the 22nd Olympiad".

Southpaw?

I think I mentioned that I'm terrible at the new boxing/MMA-style sparring that we're doing in FIGHT now. Despite the fact that I use a right hand stance for pretty much everything (drills, kickboxing class, etc), when it comes to that kind of sparring, I would spend the two minutes feeling awkward, clumsy, frustrated, and, well, getting beat (which, if you know me, just gets me MORE frustrated). I'd work with my partners and try to do more drills during the matches, and really did try to incorporate stuff that Sir was trying to teach me, but I just haven't been able to get things to start clicking for me. Last night we did knife sparring before MMA sparring, and it occurred to me that I knife fight left-handed (for a couple of reasons, but needless to say that it's gotten to be my strong side), so during MMA sparring, I switched to a southpaw stance, figuring that I couldn't do any worse than I had been previously. It wasn't magic. I'm not some great fighter now, but I did feel MUCH more comfortable in that stance and suddenly things started clicking for me. I even got in a hit on Mr R! When I talked to Sir about it after class, he just shrugged and said it was probably because in tkd sparring, we like to put our fastest side (my right) forward a lot so we can throw really fast jabs and round kicks and then will switch stances to get the power side (also my right) behind to add momentum to them. We don't switch stances so much in MMA sparring, though, so it comes down to either developing the speed and balance as a righty or the power as a lefty. He said I looked a LOT more confident, though, and to keep playing around to figure out what works best for me. My left foot has always been my balancer, so I think keeping it back in the southpaw stance allows me to have more range of motion, while having the right foot in front lets me snap out stronger kicks faster. Unfortunately, because of spending four years training as a righty, I have a wicked right cross and left hook that don't work in a lefty stance, hence why I'd have to build up the power on the left side. I dunno. We'll see. All I know is that, for once, the sparring was FUN, even if I still took a lot of hits.

On that note, gotta run off to work. Go USA!! We want the gold medal game!!

Raining Again

-Olympic knitting is going about as well as US Olympic hockey. Going strong but a lot can still mess it up. Keeping fingers crossed.

-Work is very interesting. It changes a lot. I'm doing a lot of different things right now that actually make me feel like I'm Doing Something Useful, which is awesome, particularly considering the fact that I'm technically not really trained to do any jobs, according to the AF. So that's kind of a victory in and of itself. I'm glad my almost-full-week of being in at 0700 is over, though.

-Class is going better, although I've been on base late the past couple nights and haven't made it to everything I wanted to. Chrissy is going to come to kickboxing with me tomorrow, though, so that should be fun!

Think that's about it!